Planning a Homebirth in Australia
In this episode Cassandra Casillas-Smith tells the her birth story of having a homebirth in Australia. She describes the midwifery model of care and her experience as an expat in Australia of planning for and going into labor and ultimately giving birth at home. If you want to hear another set of birth stories that took place in Australia, listen to Shalome Doran’s episodes which also feature a homebirth in Australia and one of her experiences was even an orgasmic birth.
An Expat Preparing for Childbirth in Australia
Cassandra Casillas-Smith lives in Melbourne, Australia with her husband Ben, baby girl Ruby and little pup Winston. She grew up in a small town outside Dallas, TX and went to college in Austin, TX. After college she joined the Peace Corps and received a placement in Mongolia. It was in Mongolia where she met her husband, Ben. He went to Mongolia with the Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development Programme and worked at the United Nations Development Programme.
After Mongolia they did some traveling and Cassandra returned to the Peace Corps to serve a 6 month placement in Suriname, South America. After Suriname she and Ben decided to move to Perth, Australia because that’s where the jobs were. They spent 2 lovely years in Western Australia before moving to Victoria so her husband could attend the Masters Programme at The University of Melbourne. Cassandra was 6 months pregnant when they packed up the car and their pup and drove across Australia from Perth to Melbourne in the heat of summer. Just to give you some perspective, that’s pretty much the equivalent of moving from California to Florida! They are now settled in Melbourne and Cassandra is officially an Australian Resident.
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Birth Resources in Australia
Sarah Buckley – Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering
Ten Moons Personal Midwifery Care
Prenatal Acupuncture
Hypnobirthing
http://hypnobirthingaustralia.com.au
http://www.pathtobirth.com.au
Oh Cassandra,
This is such a beautiful story! My experience was very similar – except we had a doula as we were expecting to be in hospital but my awesome birth team and hypnobirthing meant that my son was crowning before we knew it and he was born at home with the ambulance arriving just in time (that sounds dramatic but it was still a very calm experience after my doula explained that we were having a calm birth and they got over their excitement). I think we had subconsciously hoped for a home birth and all of the videos and docos we watched about natural birth were coincidentally home births
So it’s what we surrounded ourselves with. I was just thrilled with my experience even though many friends were horrified and next time will plan a homebirth from the start. Thank you for sharing your story.